The former University of New Hampshire standout is one of the best women's hockey players in the country, a 5-foot-7 stand-up defenseman who's tough to get through. But even she was backpedaling as attackers Hilary Knight, Alex Carpenter and Kelli Stack crossed the blue line on a power-play drill on Monday, three world-class snipers united with singular focus.

After a breather — but still playing short-handed — Bellamy set up in front of goalie Jessie Vetter as an Amanda Kessel-Brianne Jenner-Kendall Coyne wave of talent tried to bury a chance. That was the routine she faced at practice Monday, over and over.

For the better part of the last five months, the 26-year-old Bellamy has been playing with and against the country's best players as the days count down to their first game of the Winter Olympics — her second Games — in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 8.

There's a sense of excitement as the calendar melts, but also a desire to make sure every contingency is addressed, every "i" dotted and "t" crossed so the elusive gold medals can be draped around their necks on Feb. 20.

"Four years later, I'm a veteran," said Bellamy, after practice concluded. "My eyes are less 'way wide open.' I'm kinda looking at the prize, looking at the gold medal and focusing on that."

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The 25 final candidates for the U.S. Olympic team started a residency program in the Boston area in September, practicing for the international games of the "Bring on the World" tour that led up to the announcement of the 21-member team during the Winter Classic on New Year's Day.

Since then, it's been a handful of scrimmages against boys prep teams, weight training and conditioning, and attention-to-detail practices under the watchful eye of Harvard coach — and former UNH two-sport standout — Katey Stone.

"Before, people might have been playing a little nervous, not knowing if they were going to make the team," said Bellamy. "Now that the team's set, we're just working hard every single day, perfecting the little things."

Team USA practiced in front a few dozen fans at the Belmont Hill School on Monday. Bellamy was one of the 11 players with Olympic experience, players who know a bit more about what to expect in Sochi — and also how painful it was to lose the gold-medal game in the 2010 Vancouver Games to Canada, 2-0.

"She's an outstanding stand-up defenseman," said U.S. captain Meghan Duggan, the former Wisconsin star. "She does the little things, does what we need to do in the 'D' zone. She plays good solid 'D' and has got a heck of a shot, and she's an incredible leader in the locker room."

This is the first time Team USA doesn't have a playing tie to the iconic 1998 team, the one that featured New Hampshire natives Tara Mounsey, Katie King and Tricia Dunn, plus UNH products Karyn Bye, Colleen Coyne and Sue Merz, and won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in women's hockey in dramatic fashion.

Every player has a good story to tell, from elder stateswoman Julie Chu, who at 31 will be playing in her fourth Olympics and has already embarked on her second career as a college coach, to first-timers like Carpenter, the 19-year-old scoring whiz out of Boston College whose father, Bobby, was an American hockey pioneer back in the '80s.

Bellamy grew up in Westfield, Mass., closer to New York State than Boston, and got her first pair of skates at age 5. Growing up in a family with two brothers and a sister, and regularly playing against boys, she brings a gritty, physical edge to a game that's not billed as all that physical.

"Kacey's a great force back there," said 20-year-old defenseman Michelle Picard. "She's intense, but in a good way. She's definitely someone to look up to. She's helped to keep us all together and show us the ropes a little bit."

The UNH program Bellamy starred for, helping it reach Frozen Fours in 2006 and '08, has been through some rough years recently as programs like Boston College and Boston University have invested more in their programs, collected better recruits and passed it for the lead in Hockey East.

UNH coach Brian McCloskey was fired in December for what the university termed "inappropriate physical contact" with a player stemming from an incident during a Nov. 30 game. McCloskey answered back earlier this month, in a letter to the school's board of trustees that accuses the university of defamation, breach of contract and wrongful termination.

Bellamy gave her former coach a vote of support, though she has watched the issue play out from afar. In an interview earlier this month with New Hampshire Magazine she termed her UNH experience, "Incredible. I could not have asked for a better college that brought me amazing teammates, coaches and families to help me succeed."

Her focus these past few years has been solely on these Games, no graduate degree to pursue or balancing a job, just hockey and working with Boston-area strength and conditioning guru Mike Boyle.

"I like to write a lot, read," she said. "I definitely want to get into coaching. I volunteered at UNH in 2010-11, so getting some experience there. We do a lot of clinics with youth teams. I definitely want to get into the coaching world when I'm done playing."

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In Sochi, the format for the eight-team women's tournament is different than the 12-team men's, with two unbalanced "tiers" instead of three comparable "pools."

The U.S. women will play "tier" games against the three other highest-ranked teams in the world — Canada; Finland, which handed the Americans a loss at the Four Nations Cup in November; and Switzerland, which could find a way to stay in games behind the goaltending of former Northeastern standout Florence Schelling.

After what should be a pro forma quarterfinal against a team from the second tier — Sweden, Russia, Germany or Japan — Team USA will face its first real elimination game in the Feb. 17 semifinals and then, to the hopes of all hockey fans on this side of the ocean, a gold-medal rematch with the Canadians on Feb. 20.

Nobody who was there has to be reminded about how 2010 ended. Press releases trumpeted the Americans winning silver when it was over, but in reality they'd lost gold.

"Obviously, losing in Vancouver was really tough," said Bellamy. "That's been our motivation every single day, is that gold medal."

And now another UNH product is the one leading the way.

Stone's ties to UNH go back to 1985, when she was a freshman on a women's lacrosse team that won the school's first — and only — national championship. She counted former UNH coach Sandy Bridgeman, current UNH field hockey coach Robin Balducci and York High School field hockey coach Barb Marois among her teammates.

But it was on the ice at Snively Arena where former UNH coach Russ McCurdy's words got ingrained, the fundamentals, conditioning and discipline he preached forming the foundation of Stone's coaching style now.

"Playing against Harvard, the one thing I'd take away from playing against them was that they were relentless, hard workers," said Bellamy. "They were nonstop skating. Even if they weren't the most skilled team they could outwork you and win. That's the thing — you might have the most skilled players, but if you're not working hard you're not going to be successful.

"I think that she's really embedded that in us this year. If you're doing something, do it at 110 percent. Even if you're making a mistake, do it at 110 percent. That's what we've lived by."

Will that style earn the Americans the second gold medal they've been seeking for more than a decade? Bellamy and a bunch of other returning Olympians are both confident, and grateful they're getting another shot.

"My first time, in Vancouver, it was more of an excitement, nervous feeling," she said. "Now it's more pure motivation."